Does a kid actually think "OK, I understand what I did was wrong, I needed that spanking from my dad to ensure that fact for me"? I mean, do you guys think kids actually benefit from getting spanked? Is there any other way, that might be more effective in more aspects of their development, to get that same message across?
I look around today at the retards society produces and you can't help but think it has a lot to do with a lack of discipline which helps kids develop an understanding of right and wrong early on. Strong structure enforcing the idea of right and wrong within a household I think is the foundation of even your basic codes of morals and ethics. You learn right and wrong as you grow with the help of your parents.
I don't know, I just try to look at it from a child's perspective, how you would put together the lessons that are trying to be conveyed to you via spanking. I've been spanked, probably dozens of times when I was a kid for a lot of different reasons. I don't really ever remember thinking during any of them or after "yeah, now I know what I did was wrong.." - I either already knew what I did was wrong and why it was wrong and chose to do it anyway or the spanking was for some other reason out of my control, like my dad was pissed already (as he had a hot temper when I was younger), or I got in trouble for one of my sisters mistakes. The one thing I do think it does effectively is establish a dominant father figure, and gives a kid a good understanding of the structure of respect, and how it applies to other people, including your mother, brothers, sisters, and friends.
Anyway, this article seems to be saying otherwise. Maybe there are other, more important aspects to a kids development, instead of whether or not they might be a little aggressive, because, as pointed out, plenty of us have been spanked ourselves and we don't murder people, we're happy little potheads without a violent bone in our body...